Max Frazier

Vibrantly beaming from his head, junior Max Frazier immediately noticed the bright red strands of hair that lay atop his head in his baby photos. As he grew older, the color of his hair “calmed down a bit” yet it still remains a noticeable characteristic. For most people, his hair is the first thing that they notice. 

“Sometimes people will be like, ‘Look at that ginger’ [and] I kind of feel targeted when they say stuff like that,” Frazier said. “At the same time, you wouldn’t really say ‘Oh, look at that black-haired person’ or ‘Look at that blonde person.’ It’s not really an insult or [something] I can take seriously, it’s just a little off-putting because that’s the only thing they notice about me.” 

While he finds that others view red as less attractive compared to brown in terms of hair color, it doesn’t mean that he “lost the genetic lottery by having this hair” and has grown to accept his hair as a unique part of his identity over the years. Frazier says that his dad used to be a redhead as well, but it has turned brown over time, and is a phenomenon he has noticed with the relatives on his dad’s side. He has wondered what his hair would be like if it wasn’t brown, or whether he should dye it, however, he hasn’t made any drastic changes to it yet. 

“I’ve had people telling me to dye [my hair] brown or dirty blonde, but I’m not a huge fan of dyeing my hair,” Frazier said. “I think they would find it interesting to see me with a different hair color, but I never seriously [considered] it.”

At school, Frazier stands out due to there only being a few redheads. However, his hair isn’t something that he thinks about a lot and doesn’t play a role in his day to day life. 

“I don’t view myself with my red hair — I just view myself as who I am, like [my] personality,” Frazier said. “I think what’s more interesting is how others view my hair and how they just notice it before anything else and center everything around the fact that I am ginger.”